Aug 31, 2004 - 12:00 am .- The Republican National Convention in New York this week has two things that the Democratic convention a few months ago did not have: daily mass and a cardinal’s benediction. Roman Catholics participating at the RNC at Madison Square Garden have the possibility of celebrating daily mass all week at the Church of Our Saviour, one mile from the convention site.

Aug 31, 2004 - 12:00 am .- The Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II sent a letter to Pope John Paul II thanking him for the handing over of the Icon of Our Lady of Kazan back to the Russian Orthodox Church, and insisting that the Catholic Church “respects” the Russian Orthodox territories.

Aug 31, 2004 - 12:00 am .- U.S. broadcasters should be required to maintain archives of the programs they air and make them easily available in order to make it easier for the public to oppose indecent programming, says the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Aug 31, 2004 - 12:00 am .- Insurers for the dioceses of Los Angeles and Orange are balking at paying the possible damages claimed by hundreds of people, who say they were sexually abused by Catholic priests.

Aug 31, 2004 - 12:00 am .- The Vice President of the Colombian Bishops Conference, Bishop Luis Augusto Castro, expressed disappointment this week that the response of the Marxist rebel group FARC does not contain any new proposals that would facilitate a peace solution to the country’s civil conflict.

Aug 31, 2004 - 12:00 am .- During the opening of the Second Vocations Congress, taking place at the headquarters of the Bishops Conference of Brazil, Cardinal Geraldo Majella Angelo emphasized the need to “create a culture of vocations” in the country.

Aug 31, 2004 - 12:00 am .- The President of the Institute for Family Policy in Spain, Eduardo Hertfelder, said the Socialist government’s proposal to speed up the divorce process in Spain by not requiring a time of separation signifies a true regression in the policies that are supposed to help resolve marriage crises and that the measure will make the rupture of marriage bonds easier rather than less common.